MLB: Phillies get production from outfield, blow by Mets

Philadelphia Phillies' Domonic Brown, left, celebrates with teammate Ryan Howard after hitting a three-run home run in the fifth inning of a baseball game in New York on Saturday, April 27, 2013. New York Mets catcher John Buck watches. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

NEW YORK — The starting pitching is a more than $70 million investment. The starting infield is a virtual All-Star team of its era. The starting catcher will be back Sunday.

For the Phillies, that left one nagging, prolonged trouble spot … and too often before Saturday, one with little hope.

The outfield.

“We’ve got to do,” Domonic Brown said, “a better job, man.”

So they did, as in a 9-4 victory over the New York Mets Saturday, when Brown, John Mayberry Jr. and Laynce Nix would generate four hits, including two home runs, five RBIs, two walks and two runs scored.

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“That’s definitely good,” Charlie Manuel said “That’s what we’ve been waiting for. We have to make it more often. That’s good. Real good.”

With useful if less than dominating starting pitching from Jonathan Pettibone (1-0) and a collection of rockets off the awakening bat of Ryan Howard, the Phillies won their second consecutive game. Making his second major-league start, Pettibone lasted five innings, allowing seven hits, striking out four and walking two, with 60 of his 96 pitches good for strikes. Mets starter Shaun Marcum fell to 0-1.

Brown and Mayberry hit back-to-back home runs in a five-run fifth that gave the Phils an 8-2 lead and settled Pettibone. Raul Valdes, Chad Durbin and Jeremy Horst combined for four innings of one-run relief.

“It’s always nice when the offense is putting up runs,” said Pettibone, who chipped in with his first major-league hit. “It takes a little pressure off on the mound. I was able to continue throwing strikes, attack the zone and get out of it.”

Howard whistled an RBI grounder between the legs of shortstop Ruben Tejada to score Jimmy Rollins, who’d doubled to greet reliever Robert Carson in the defining fifth. With Rollins effectively screening Tejada, Howard was awarded a base-hit.

Brown followed with a three-run homer to right, his third of the season, and Mayberry answered with his second of the year, to left. All three outfielders drove in runs.

“We are just trying to do a little bit too much,” Brown said. “Today was a different outcome. That’s what we are capable of doing. And we will keep that mindset and that goal set going that we’ve been doing here in the clubhouse. And if we keep preparing before the games, we are going to be fine during the games.”

The Mets drew within 8-3 in their fifth when Tejada and Wright doubled. But Nix restored the six-run lead with a seventh-inning single to deliver Young, who’d singled. Young was 3-for-4 and improved his average to .353.

John Buck greeted Horst with his eighth home run of the season in the ninth.

Pettibone led off the third with a single. Rollins followed with a hit through the middle and had to stop at third when Chase Utley’s shot bounced over the left-center fence for a ground-rule double that plated Pettibone. But Marcum’s wild pitch pushed Rollins home and Utley to third. Howard’s one-out sacrifice fly made it 3-1.

Jordany Valdespin’s second-inning single delivered Ike Davis, who had reached second when his sharp hit ricocheted off the first-base-line fence and into shallow right for a fluke double.

New York loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth, but could score only on a Davis sacrifice fly that scored Wright. But Pettibone struck out pinch-hitter Justin Turner looking with runners on first and third to end the inning.

By then, the Phillies had already done enough.

“Actually, we knocked in some runs when we needed to,” Manuel said. “We haven’t been hitting in those right situations. Today, we did. We had a little bit of everything.”